Virgin and Child with Saints

Mino da Fiesole’s altar of the Virgin and Child with Saints was placed opposite the tomb of Leonardo Salutati, in his funerary chapel in Fiesole Cathedral. In the middle of the marble relief, which is set in an architectonic frame and divided into three parts by columns, the Virgin can be seen kneeling in prayer. Sitting in front of her on a step is the Christ Child giving a blessing. To their left Leonard of Noblac (Salutati’s patron saint) and the Infant Saint John the Baptist are portrayed. The figures to their right appear to be Saint Martin and the beggar. The depiction of the Virgin in the company of saints is an example of the iconographical type known as the sacra conversazione (sacred conversation), which arose in Italian altar painting in the early fifteenth century.